IIT Dharwad Temporary Campus Would Be Ready By June 10

The demand of IIT Dharwad was made 17 years back and finally, the institute would begin functioning from this year

One of the newest addition in the list of Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) – IIT Dharwad would be a reality in next two months. With clearance from the technical team of IIT Bombay and state government, the academic session in IIT Dharwad would commence from July this year. The institute would offer three courses in its first year, namely, computer science and engineering, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. All three courses would begin with 40 seats each, as informed by the IIT-B team.

IIT-Dharwad would function at a temporary campus set up at the Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI) for first three years, meanwhile the construction work of permanent campus would be finished. WALMI campus is located on the outskirts of Dharwad city in Karnataka. The permanent campus of IIT Dharwad would come up on 500 acres land near Mummigatti on the Pune-Bengaluru National Highway off Dharwad. The construction of permanent campus would be done as per the master plan drawn up by the engineering team along with the PWD team of Karnataka.

The demand of setting up an IIT at Dharwad was first raised 17 years ago when late HRD Minister S R Bommai forwarded the proposal to central government. Since then, the proposal went through several modifications and finally the institute would begin functioning this year, thus ending a long wait.

IIT Bombay will act as a mentor and would provide all the technical, administrative assistance to IIT Dharwad. A three member committee had also visited WALMI campus in December last year and mentioned the need of three state-of-the-art laboratories for chemistry, physics and computer science along with the facilities to house 120 students (first batch), faculty and staff.

The facilities at WALMI campus were in distorted condition. Present residential structures at WALMI campus were locked and unused for many years and they needed complete restoration. However, the administrative block and other buildings earmarked for classes are in better condition, they also need renovation. The authorities have promised to complete the restoration work by May end. Nodal officer of IIT Dharwad project, P. Rajendra Cholan said “the work on creating necessary infrastructure as sought by the technical team would be completed in 45 days.” He also informed that three labs and classrooms mentioned by IIT technical team have been kept ready.

First floor of WALMI building will be used for regular classes of first batch while the office of WALMI will be shifted to second floor.

JEE Advanced result will be announced on June 10 and the admission process would commence thereafter in all IITs along with admissions for 120 seats in IIT Dharwad.